Posted
by
kdawson
on Monday November 22, 2010 @10:15AM
from the old-order-passeth dept.

wiredmikey and a few others wrote in to let us know that Novell has agreed to be acquired by Attachmate Corporation for $6.10 per share in cash, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.2 billion. The Boston Globe reports that the deal also includes the sale of some intellectual assets to a consortium organized by Microsoft. Attachmate plans to operate Novell and SUSE as separate business units. Here is the press release.

- They're loaded but you never heard of them,- VCs usually buy or invest in a company to make a lot of money quickly,- If Novell's market cap doesn't increase a lot soon, or they don't turn a huge profit soon (fat chance), they're hosed, like most companies taken over by VC money.

Attachmate may be a VC firm now, but it started out as an IBM (or at least, mainframe) terminal emulation company. They used to make boards that emulated a 3270 that you could install in PCs. Plenty of people have heard of them.

I spent years working a job where we used Attachmate Reflection software to connect to the mainframes where we did our work. It is a terminal emulator for Windows machines. Wrote quite a few macros for it.

Attachmate is a software company owned by an investment group led by Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, and Thoma Cressey Bravo. Attachmate focuses on terminal emulation, legacy modernization, managed file transfer, and enterprise fraud management software. It is the largest privately owned software company in Washington, USA.[citation needed]

Products

The Attachmate logo on older software products.As a result of the mergers and acquisitions detailed below, Attachmate has broadened its solution set to include several brands:

I wonder what the IP that'll be acquired by MS will consist of?
My guess will be the items that were relevant to the MSNovell patent deal, to remove that need for MS to provide protection for those that have used SuSE..

As long as we're making guesses, I'm guessing it will include:Mono... maybe.eDirectory (formerly NDS) - To end the lawsuit threat Novell has had over MS since Active Directory, MS's NDS clone, debuted in 2000. Oh, and MS will kill eDirectory and encourage users to move to Active Directory... along with Windows Server if they currently use Linux.ZenWorks Desktop Management - To my knowledge, this is like nothing MS currently has. Used for centrally managing the software installed on networked computers.

Given that the UNIX code is old enough that no one is looking at it now (if they ever were when working on Linux), the fact that Novell released Suse under the GPL which means that even if there IS any UNIX code in Linux (not likely), it's still safe.

Hot news for you: Linux is many more places than Microsoft's products. You just don't know it. Millions of electronic devices use it. Yes, millions. Mostly invisible to you because it just works. When it **has** to work, there's some kind of Unix used.

Windows has a niche and does a good job defending it. It's an "okay" desktop. Mostly they use the desktop like a cancer that bores into an office environment. Straight server applications? Expensive in most ways and comparably weak. It's below average

Attachmate's strategy for the economic downturn was to lay off most of their development staff while still collecting maintenance from all their customers. And they only had to follow that strategy because the private equity group that owns them had sucked a ton of money out of the company by saddling it with a gigantic debt.

I don't feel very good about the prospects for sane, customer focused management from this particular company.

Yes, and no. I consider it to be dishonest to customers. And if it weren't for the debt they had been saddled with, they would've been plenty profitable enough to avoid doing it at all.

Additionally, programmers are not easily replaceable. Every single project I've ever worked on inside a corporation had an amazing amount of 'tribal knowledge' locked in the heads of various developers. So not only are you battening down the hatches for the present when you lay them off, you're mortgaging your future by destroying the core intellectual base for the stuff you have.

Seniority was a big criteria when they did this, but the morale destruction caused a lot of their most senior and competent people to leave.

The whole fiasco painted a picture (to me) of management that didn't see a quality product as the key to improving their bottom line, but rather was more interested in the appearance of a quality product and making short-term decisions in the interests of the bottom line. They traded on their reputation with their customers to the detriment of those same customers.

You could argue that having the company go under would be even worse for those customers. But the only reason why that was a danger at all was because of previous decisions that teated profits as an end to themselves rather than as a reward for a job well done.

So not only are you battening down the hatches for the present when you lay them off, you're mortgaging your future by destroying the core intellectual base for the stuff you have.

The buyers in this case and most others are not planning for a future. They are extracting as much wealth as possible as quickly as possible with no regard for a future that will never be. If it blows up in 2, 3, or five years is only a matter of finding more suckers to take money from while Novell's business prospects end.

I guess there goes the whole ecosystem. Not the Novell being sold part, but the "intellectual properties" (patents, copyrights, patents) going to the M$-led group. It looks like there could be potential litigation out of that group who would want to maximize their "gain". I think the time is NOW to ban all software patents! Any more delay or foot dragging will kill the IT industry.

I just found a Novell press release dated November 26, 1996, which makes it *after* the October 16th, 1996 Amendment 2 was signed. Guess what it says Novell sold off to Santa Cruz? "The UnixWare product lines". I'm pretty excited about digging this up.

SCO is arguing in its Reply Brief in its appeal that Amendment 2 changed the excluded assets language of the APA so that it gave SCO the copyrights and everything:

During the entire SCO trial while Novell was asserting it owned the Unix copyrights they continued to distribute SUSE. If Linux does in fact contain Unix code, it has been affirmed by the courts that Novell owns the Unix copyrights and Novell has been distributing it for years under the GPL.

From my own experience in IT, IIS sucks. I've seen a lot of problems with its stability. Regardless, it's Windows-only, and this is Slashdot where no one much cares about closed source software unless it is to outperform or outdo it in some way. So, while it is certainly possible the issue isn't due to crappy software, I would definitely not rule it out.

Stacker, FoxPro, many others. MS's buying of Foxpro especially annoyed me; Foxpro was a good DBMS before MS bought and killed it. It was head and shoulders above Access. MS couldn't compete, so they bought them out and pretty much ruined it.

FoxPro, many others. MS's buying of Foxpro especially annoyed me; Foxpro was a good DBMS before MS bought and killed it. It was head and shoulders above Access. MS couldn't compete, so they bought them out and pretty much ruined it.

I remember the atmosphere on the CI$ FoxPro forums back when the MS-Fox deal was announced - real "end of the world" stuff. People were talking about jumping off buildings. I was one who feared the worst, but as it turns out, MS only killed the Mac and Unix versions. They did continue to support and develop the DOS (for a little while) and Windows versions until recently.

Err, hmm, not so recently. Apparently VFP 9 was released at the end of 2004, with a couple of service packs released since then. Time

Yes, the last version that was anything at all like the old FoxPro was 6. It was still actually a good program. My work upgraded to 8, and it was an unusable mess. I've been using Access since. I hate it, but I heted the mess they made of FoxPro even more.

I for one would be wondering whether this move was intended to acquire the Unix copyrights that Novell owns (as determined by the SCO case). The idea here is that SCO was stopped largely because they didn't actually have copyright on what they claimed infringement for.

Not that there weren't lots of other reasons why the case didn't hold water, but this does look like potentially a way to get the whole thing started up again.

I wonder... if the UNIX copyrights are of any good to damage Linux or Open Source, why would have other big companies involved in and benefiting from Linux and Open Source taken any risks by allowing for these assets to end up in unfriendly hands? On the other hand, if the UNIX copyrights can potentially be harmful when misused, what would a.o. IBM and Google have for an apology for letting it happen?
This is of course under the assumption that the "certain intellectual property assets" did contain Novell'

While Novell never confirmed whether or not Unix code was in Linux, it was affirmed that they owned the Unix copyrights. If Linux does contain Unix code, SUSE has been distributing it for years under GPL anyway...

Shipping a Linux distribution didn't stop SCO and to my knowledge nobody ever pushed hard on the "they were shipping Linux angle" because SCO stopped distribution, and if their allegations were correct someone else put it in there anyway so they could still sue.

No, nobody pushed hard on the "they were shipping Linux" angle because the relevant court case would be SCO vs. IBM, which has been stayed pending the outcome of SCO vs. Novell (which still hasn't happened; SCO are appealing yet again). I'm sure IBM's lawyers would use it if that case ever went forwards.

It wasn't pushed hard because that angle would only have been relevant had SCO actually owned the UNIX copyright. The case never got that far. It had to be determined first, who owned the UNIX copyright. Then, it had to be determined if Linux in fact contained UNIX code. Then, if so, whether or not it was legally contributed to Linux and distributable under the GPL.

The only one of those three things that was determined in the courts was the owner of the copyrights. There hasn't been any ruling on whether or

I am amazed at how - once again - Novell blundered and lost the opportunity to capitalize on something. Back in '05 I thought Novell and SUSE (SLED, SLES...) would have a viable future competing against Wintendo and Unix. However, I noticed way back in '08 that they were slipping and I eventually jumped ship myself (over to Ubuntu) and gave up trying to persuade my server room staff to switch to Novell.

Back in '95, we were lamenting this problem of defending NetWare in the face of an overwhelming Windows assault. The consensus then was that when the suits read a back cover ad declaring this the 'year of Windows', and the t-shirts get free development tools and the promise of write-once-run-everywhere, even though running your server tools on the client was never a requirement, then NetWare was doomed. This actually started with NTAS and picked up unstoppable momentum with Windows Server 2000. Nevermind that Exchange took a little while longer to come of age, for many shops NetWare was what they clung to GroupWise for. Once GW was hammered, it was over. The interesting GW exploits didn't help.

ZenWorks was, back then and up to at least 2004, really clever and actually made Windows administration tolerable if not cool. Schools used that a lot for various clever reasons. But Even Microsoft saw that ADS administration needed to improve, and it pretty much did. Add in some licensing spiffs, a continuing campaign to destroy NetWare compatibility, and Novell ran out of time and market. Last I checked, they had solid revenue form licensing, but the end was in sight. SUSE is a whole other story. Novell should have acquired OpenOffice. SCO didn't help.

I'm not hopeful for Novell. This looks like the carving of the turkey. All this time, and they will die the death of a thousand divestments. Arghh...

you know this was probably thrown in there somewhere. Now what could Novell have in "assets" which Microsoft would want so bad as to put a consortium together? Is Gnome getting handed over to Microsoft along with any remaining GroupWise customers maybe.

If gnome is being handed off - goodbye and good riddance. With mono together. And with the Microsoft worshipper AKA Miguel de Icasa as an added bonus. Please, pretty please...

I am more concerned about the Unix copyrights. That may allow restart of the whole sorry SCO affair on a whole new level - not just going after Linux per se, but also after all of the stuff running on top it like Android.

Microsoft is involved, so that is not good news. SuSE is dead, or soon will be.What's going to happen to the UNIX copyrights, and will this IP sale be the stick that they will continue to try to beat Linux with?Software patents? OMG, in the hands of Microsoft?

One can theorize that this is Microsoft's way of trying to get Google. Windows Phone 7 needs a way to beat Android, and I'm sure the whole Linux copyright, patent BS will be focused on the mobile phone market.

Maybe the Attachmate CEO just ran out of shit to kill and has moved on to companies.

From Wikipedia:

Jeff Hawn—the president and CEO of Seattle-based Attachmate who lives in Austin, Texas—has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for authorizing the slaughter of 32 of his neighbor's bison that wandered onto his Colorado ranch. Hawn pleaded guilty in November to criminal mischief and animal cruelty. Hawn and hired hands shot and killed 32 bison, which had wandered onto and near his property from a neighboring ranch in Park County, Colorado — including cows carrying calfs. In Colorado, bison are allowed to wander under open-range laws.

The arrest warrant said most were left to rot.

Hawn, plead guilty to criminal mischief and cruelty to animals and was released free on a $15,000 bail. The Denver Post reports that the judge sentenced Hawn to 10 days in jail.

I'm fairly sure regular folk would do more time for killing someone's dog... But on the other hand, it surprises me that a rich son of a bitch like this would get any time at all.
They seem to think they are above the law, but can you blame them... time and time this is proven in the court of law.

The main factor here is probably that unfortunately for buffalo, they are ugly stinky animals. If instead he had killed cute cuddly puppies or pandas, or sleek mustangs, I bet they would have thrown the book at him.

In court testimony Mr. Hawn is reported to have said 'I was told we had to kill GNU as part of this deal. I didn't really understand the reference, but I looked up a picture of a Gnu. When I saw them wandering onto my ranch I knew what had to be done."

I started my career in I.T. with Novell, but I left it behind when I saw the writing on the wall. I had been wishing for a miracle for the company like Google acquiring it, since IMHO a easy intuitive GUI driven directory service is lacking in the Non-Microsoft world. Especially one that plays well with other operating systems. Yes you can use other operating systems in an AD environment, but not as "out of the box" as Novell IMHO. Oh well... I guess we will see.

The rest of the world is still indirectly affected. If the FUD cloud descends again, it will slow adoption of Linux by businesses and have chilling effects on corporate donations of time, money, and code -- don't forget that a lot of Open Source development is backed by US corporations like IBM. So this potentially affects everyone, regardless of whether you're subject to US copyright/patent law!

Miguel was very quick indeed to try to spread FUD and capitalize on the uncertainty that Oracle brought to Java, e.g. see: http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2010/Oct-26.html [tirania.org]
I wonder how is this going to impact his disposition. Let me guess, it's still better than Java right?

@migueldeicaza So apparently Mono is NOT part of the IP that is being sold by Attachmate to Microsoft?@eric_sink I dont know, what I know is that the exact details of the transaction are under SEC regulations, so info is limited.

Novell also announced it has entered into a definitive agreement for the concurrent sale of certain intellectual property assets to CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft Corporation

With Novell owning Mono, the free software community will have to watch this.

A quick search of the Patent-Pair Assignment database indicates that this likely every "friggin" patent Novell owns. That is Patent-Pair has 1711 entries with Novell as an assignee, but since these include duplicate application and granted patents, as well as other stuff, the total patents sold down the river to Redmond likely represents everything touched by Novell.

What surprises me is that a company found to have illegally used its monopoly in operating systems is even allowed to be involved with a deal like because operating systems are involved. And the EU had lots of issues with MS middleware and this includes lots of middleware too.

To top it off, this deal involves a company with current antitrust legal efforts on going. I guess this is a form of settlement but without any open market considerations, this seems more like the bully won again.

We will once again see Microsoft's true colors regarding open source and they will not be friendly. If you've not seen recently, Microsoft had to pull revenue from losing divisions to prop up their Windows divisions so they look like there was growth. What that means is they have peaked and the wounded lion is going to come out pissing on everything. IMO